1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of entertainment services. More specifically, one embodiment of the invention relates to a system and method for identifying incoming content and downloading metadata associated with this content to a display device after such identification.
2. General Background
Over the past few years, analog-based entertainment has rapidly given way to its digital counterpart. Despite the growing demand for digital-based entertainment, the migration toward high-definition television (HDTV) television broadcasts has been quite slow. Any upcoming entertainment-based technology, such as interactive television for example, will likely experience the same fate for a number of reasons.
One reason is that, as set-box boxes continue to handle more of the data/signal processing, televisions are being relegated to the role of “dumb” monitors. Therefore, despite heightened interests by television manufacturers in providing interactive television capabilities to consumers, it is extremely difficult to make such technology available without assistance from the set-top box manufacturers.
For instance, in some cable systems, televisions receive television programming without any metadata. The metadata provides information pertaining to the data stream such as the title of the television program for example. Metadata is necessary in order to provide a better overall experience for any interactive television, but in certain cases, is not being supplied to the television by the set-top boxes. Hence, without a supply of metadata from the set-top box, a television or other display device would need to be able to recover the metadata based on the content itself in order to provide an effective interactive television platform.